Spill shuts Sunoco pipeline
Sunoco Logistics shut a 142,000-barrel-per-day crude pipeline linking Ohio to Michigan after an oil spill at the line's pump station in Cygnet, Ohio, the company said.
The Maumee pipeline was shut down in the late afternoon on Wednesday and it was unclear when it would restart, a Sunoco operating official in Houston said, according to a Reuters report.
Sunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski said the size of the oil spill - some of which seeped into the nearby Portage River - was not yet known.
By midday yesterday, crude had stopped leaking from the pipeline and a crew was working to contain the spill, Sunoco said. No injuries were reported.
Industry sources said the pipeline outage was unlikely to affect refinery operations in the Midwest, unless it is prolonged.
Refineries often fed by Maumee's crude include BP's 131,000-bpd plant and Sunoco's 160,000-bpd, both in Toledo, Ohio, and Marathon Oil Corp's 102,000-bpd Detroit, Michigan refinery.
"The Sunoco pipeline is one of the sources of crude for the (Detroit) refinery," said Linda Casey, a spokeswoman for Marathon.
The Maumee pipeline runs from Lima, Ohio to Samaria, Michigan.